Help! I Have A Knocked Out Tooth: When You Need Emergency Dental Care

Getting a tooth knocked out is a painful experience, but it’s often followed by something even worse: the realization that you’ve lost a tooth forever!

Fortunately, modern dentistry makes it possible to save your tooth as long as you act fast. To increase your chances of saving your tooth, you should seek emergency dental care within 30 minutes to an hour after the incident.

Below, our team at Smile Design Manhattan explains how you can store your knocked-out tooth to increase your chances of having it successfully re-implanted when you arrive at the dentist’s office.

How to take care of a knocked-out tooth 

First, find all of the pieces of the knocked-out tooth, and rinse them with tap water for a few seconds. When you pick up the pieces, don’t touch the roots. Also, don’t scrub off the dirt or blood from the tooth, as this may permanently damage the roots.

Next, keep the roots moist. If the roots lose their moisture, you’ll lose your tooth for good. The best way to prevent root damage is by reinserting your tooth back into the socket or by keeping your tooth moist by placing it in your mouth next to your cheek. 

If excess pain and bleeding prevent you from being able to keep your tooth in your mouth, place your tooth in cold milk. Milk’s pH level, as well as its proteins and carbohydrates, ensures that your tooth’s root cells will continue to grow while being stored in an antibacterial environment. 

Water isn’t a good medium for storing your tooth as the cell roots swell up and burst when kept in water for prolonged periods.

How dentists reinsert a knocked out tooth 

If the roots are still moist, one of our dental experts can reinsert your tooth in its socket and prevent it from moving around by using a stabilizing splint. 

You may need to wear the splint for a few weeks until the root and the bone heal. After the recovery period, one of our specialists may have to perform a root canal to remove the damaged blood vessels in the pulp of your tooth.

Seek emergency dental care 

Did you get one of your teeth knocked out? You have a 90% chance of saving your tooth if you get it replanted within 30 minutes, so seek dental help immediately.

If you live near Midtown West, New York, contact us, or have someone else reach out to us to explain the situation, and pay us a visit as soon as possible.